35 weeks... I'm over this!

So, 35 weeks as of yesterday and I'm over this crap. Three more days and I can deliver here. The doctor bumped up my c-section to Feb. 7th which is just 2 days but hell, I'll take it I guess. I get to go off the medicine on Wednesday and we also have to go to the hospital that day for the fetal stress test to make sure they are still doing okay. Oh! Also, I am 3 pounds away from that number on the scale I was refusing to hit. Oink! Oink!

There are some women who shoot rays of sunshine out of their butt when they are pregnant. They talk about how energetic and vibrant they are feeling which just makes me feel like the biggest complaining loser ever. Seriously, what is making them feel so damn vibrant? Constipation? Regurgatation? Bones popping in and out of sockets? Getting jelly squeezed into orafaces where it doesn't belong? These women are like Stepford Wives and next time one of them approaches me to tell me how great they feel, I'm going to plug up their happy dirt star with so much freaking jelly that the sunshine will need to find some other hole to shoot out of! They have to be mentally imbalanced, right?

Our friends, Tiddy and Joanne had their baby on Sunday. He was 5 lbs. 5 ozs. and he is so cute! My kids will probably be about that size or a little bigger so I'm completely comfortable with their size right now. They said that it's so amazing how you can love someone so much in an instant. Good thing too, otherwise you would never change their stank diapers.

Stretch Marks and Cankles

The only reason I am willing to post this picture is because most of you know that I don't usually look like such a gelatinous blob or carry around this much facial blubber. Please peep the size of my beehonkus! Anyway, it blows my mind to see myself this way so I feel like you all will get a good laugh out of it also. Wow!



So, after taking myself off bedrest last Thursday, I re-instated the bedrest on Friday. I was in so much pain it was ridiculous after doing all that shopping around. It's like when you run a mile and you are feeling okay the rest of the day but by the next morning, you are too sore to move around without the aid of a walker. Plus, I started having very strong contractions which scared me and I would rather just tough it out for a couple more days to be able to deliver here rather than Charleston. Also, I'm sure the bedbugs were suicidal without me.

This past Sunday brought around the introduction of some stretch marks and some big ol' cankles! I have been throwing a mini pity-party because of the stretch marks ever since. I thought I wasn't going to have to deal with them, but low and behold, these kids have not only given me the gift of hemorroids but skanky red stretch marks too. The cankles I can handle, although they are challenging the width of my neck... but I am blaming those on water retention and they are probably not permanent either. Pew!

34 WEEKS!

We did it! Hell, I did it! The big goal for us was 34 weeks! I treated myself to a day out and about! Actually, we had ordered carseats online and because consumer reports just issued that new list of safe seats and there were only 2 that passed, they are on backorder for the next 10 years! So, Brent and I went to Baby Depot, Target, and Walmart trying to find anything so that we can take these kids home. We didn't have any success but my mom found some in Huntsville and is bringing them with her when she comes. (Wow - that was boring... I don't know why I'm rambling.)

So our friends Kim and Pratt had their baby last Friday and it was a little boy! We were so excited for them because they already had a girl and I'm sure they were hoping for one of each. No one expected a little boy and he is such a doll baby! I do have to admit that I snuck out of the house on Monday to visit them. I got to hold him and he was so little - 7 lbs. 1 oz. I can't believe that mine are going to be so much smaller in size! I'm so afraid I'm going to break them!

We went to the doctor this morning and again, there was no change. I tried to convince her to give me a c-section on Feb. 2nd but she won't. She is sure that as soon as I stop taking my medicine (Jan. 31st) that things will go quickly and I won't make it to Feb. 9th anyway. I was so disappointed. I asked her for a water breaking poker thing and she just laughed. I guess she thought I was joking! :) Anyway, at least I'm off bedrest now (unbeknownst to the doctor). We looked for a dresser for the nursery today, went to Longhorn for lunch, and got a couple more things set up in the nursery. I'm tired and aching now but I love feeling semi-human again!!!

Doctor's Appointment Dilemmas

Brent and I went to our weekly doctor's appointment yesterday. We were both hoping that things would have progressed a little from last week, but no such luck. In a way, it was kind of nice to hear that everything has stayed the same because one day last week, I cheated and snuck out to Motherhood Maternity to get some nursing clothes for the hospital. It was really a mad dash and I wasn't in the store for longer than 10-15 minutes, but it was the first time I had been out in public other than the doctor's office since I had been put on bedrest. Also, I have been getting up a couple times during the day other than the shower. It's just to walk into the kitchen once or twice or to answer the door for the UPS dude, but still... I did all of that and nothing changed from the previous week.

So, the doctor has tentatively scheduled our c-section for February 9th. She said we could do it a week earlier, but that it would require that I have an amnio done first to make sure that the babies have mature lungs. I hate needles with a passion, especially one that's a foot long that will be jammed directly into my stomach, but the more uncomfortable I get with each passing day, the more I am considering it. I think that we will wait another week to decide on that one for sure. Also, the doctor told me that I only need to hold off for another 2 weeks in order to be able to deliver in Hilton Head. It would be so much more convenient if we could deliver here, which puts a damper on the fact that I wanted to start getting out of bed once I had met our 34 week goal. It makes me think that I should continue to do the strict bedrest for another 2 weeks just so that we will be in town and close to home and all of our animals as opposed to being an hour up the road in Charleston. All the traveling back and forth was a lot on Brent the last time and I would just like for him not to have to deal with that stress on top of being a new daddy. I don't know...

So, one last thing... the doctor told us yesterday that if I go into labor before 35.5 weeks, that she will still try to stop the labor. That makes me want to cry. She said that even if I am right at 35 weeks when it happens, she will try and stop it just to get in a few more days for lung development. I completely understand that her main concern is the babies and not me, but I really am comfortable with them being born at anytime now especially because they had that big steriod shot for brain and lung development the last time I went into premature labor. She told me that there is nothing that they can do if my water breaks though, so does that mean I should ignore all contractions that happen before my water breaks just so I know that the next time I go to the hospital, these little suckers are coming out?

33 WEEKS!

We are at 33 weeks today! Brent and I can both feel it coming soon... we are both thinking that they are coming in about a week - just a gut feeling. Hopefully, I can make it to 34 before they get here. In the meantime, I am laying around here just feeling like a ticking time bomb! Our doctor's appointment last week went very well. Our little girl has claimed her spot as being the first one born for sure! On Monday, we had an ultrasound and the babies measured at 4 lbs. 9 oz. (her) and 4 lbs. 13 oz. (him). I can't believe I am carrying around close to 10 pounds of baby in my scrawny little body (although, "scrawny" doesn't really describe my body these days - I answer more quickly to "big girl" or "wide-load".) Brent keeps telling me that my clothes are shrinking!!! I'm not sure if he's trying to make excuses for the fact that I have a "muffin top" hanging over my pants and sticking out from under my shirt or if he really doesn't realize how huge I am.

Yesterday was so much fun! One of my friends from highschool, who also went to Furman with me, just moved to Charleston about 2 weeks ago and she came and spent the day with me. I'm sure it was terribly boring for her, but it was so nice to see her and to have some company for the day. We hadn't seen each other for about 2 years since she has been moving all around with her husband's job in the Air Force. I loved having her here and can't wait to visit her since she is so close by now. Today, I'm having lunch with Kim and Shelby at a very chic eatery I like to call "my bedroom". I feel so bad for everyone who comes to spend time with me and all they get is this massive blob who can't move and is festering in the same spot on her bed hour after hour after hour.

32 WEEKS!

Whew! We've made it to our first really good goal of 32 weeks and that's great news! However, it has hit me with a huge sledgehammer. Yesterday I started feeling a lot of mild contractions that just progressed and grew stronger throughout the night. I woke up this morning still experiencing the contractions, but by drinking tons of fluids and barely moving at all, I've managed to keep the contractions down to about 4 an hour. We have a doctor's appointment in the morning so as long as I can hold out until tomorrow, I will be fine. If I end up going in there sometime today, then I know I will just be ambulanced back up to Charleston and that's just one nasty fiasco I would like to avoid until absolutely necessary. Hopefully tomorrow at the doctor's office, she will tell me that everything is still looking good and there has been no change. I know it's this full moon! The last full moon I ended up at MUSC and the full moon before that was spent in the hospital in Hilton Head. Weird.

So, the holidays are officially over for us now. My aunt and uncle were here yesterday on their way back to Jacksonville to pick up their presents before heading home. It was nice seeing them and spending a little more time with them. Binky flies home tomorrow too. I don't want him to go back. I like having him in the United States so that I know I can see him when I want and I can call him when I want. It's so hard having him overseas but if he gets his request to be in Germany for his next tour, then I am going to have to deal with it even longer than I imagined. Whatever keeps him safe and whatever keeps him happy is really all that matters. I just have to remind myself that from time to time since I'm selfish and would prefer him close by.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007!

Happy New Year my peeps! Wow! You all are lucky that you weren't around us crazy partying Harbin's last night! We were so wild that we are lucky we didn't end up in jail! Brent and I were both dead asleep by 11:00. Out of control, I know! I happened to wake up at 11:59 and quickly shook Brent awake so we could see the ball drop. My preggo ass had to pee and by the time I got back from the bathroom, Brent had already started snoring again. It was ridiculous. I feel like we could just move into an old people's home today and fit right in!

That brings me to my new year's resolutions... This year, I am going to cut out all cussing of the serious sort. No more f-bomb, sh*t, or any version of the word ass. I've got babies on the way and I need to shape up! It's tacky and very trailor trashish anyway. It will be hard especially because I have known since I got knocked up that my cussing was coming to a quick end and for whatever reason, I have become a cussing fiend like I am trying to get it all out before the twins enter the world.

So, today Brent and I are just hanging out and watching football together. We will probably play some board games later. He's in the kitchen right now cooking the usual new year's black eyed pea, collard green, and ham hock crap that has become tradition with us since we started living together. It's actually really good but spending the day with Brent while he's full of beans is going to leave me with a bunch of burnt nose hairs.

Happy New Years again everyone! I hope this years brings us all good fortune and tons of smiles!